Dear 2016
Well hello there pals, how are ya? Was your Christmas full of magic sparkly goodness?
Mine was a general joy of travelling down the country (started in Sheffield, ended in Kent) to see all the lovely people, generous gifts and, of course, all the foods (including three Christmas dinners).
The only downer was my dad managing to break his foot. It was my first day off work, I’d arrived in Sheffield, was sat on the bed reading and I could already feel myself starting to unwind. I was just starting to think that my dad had been a while on his daily run when I heard the door. About ten minutes later, I heard him walking up the stairs very slowly.
“You alright?” I called out.
“Er, I think I might have just broken my foot.”
“Eh?”
He hobbled into my room and I immediately noticed the lump on his foot.
“Oh my god, is that your bone sticking the wrong way?!”
8 months living in St Albans
Yeah, okay, eight months is a random time point to do this post. I probably had every intention of writing this around the six month mark but TIME GOES SO FAST AND SUDDENLY I’VE LOST TWO MONTHS = my life.
So we’re going with eight(ish) months.
I just read back on the post I wrote about a month after we first moved in and you can really sense how jittery I was. Such a big move and lots of job searches was clearly making me bounce all over the place cos, lol, can’t handle big life changes. But you can also sense my excitement at getting ready to dive into St Albans and explore.
Little Gems: 23
It's just over a week to go and I have dark red Christmassy nails, curly hair and am wearing my fave Slytherin-green oversized jumper. Come at me Christmas.
I’m also on a train to York and wondering why virgin trains are rockier than a flippin’ boat at sea. Why is it not smooth sailing Richard Branson huh huh?
Some joy from the past few weeks:
15 Activities That Will Instantly Make You Feel Festive
I keep doing a little excited hop whilst humming Fairytale of New York because I am all about this festive month. It truly warms my soul and, as soon as December hits, I have no shame in expressing my love for this time of year. But, just in case you’re not quite feeling it yet, here are some activities you can partake in to get ya in the mood.
Unless you’re a real life Scrooge (cough my sister cough), in which case probs best not to hang around me cos um, I’ve pretty much already done all of the below.
1) Paint your nails festive colours. Cos this is the time of year to rock those reds and golds, and they will instantly make you feel a more sparkly version of you.
2) Make a camembert and cranberry sandwich (toasted of course). Or any other kind of festive sandwich for that matter. Should probably include stuffing of some sort.
3) Speaking of food, do some Christmas baking. Or at least get your other half to do some baking. G filled the flat with the smells of homemade mince pies and sausage rolls on Saturday and it was divine.
4) Oh just eat and bake amazing food all the time for the next month. That's basically the point of Christmas.
5) Decorate. OBVIOUSLY. Get that tree up whilst drinking a glass of prosecco. String fairy lights over your bookshelves. Hang stockings from the fireplace. Get tinsel round the mirror. Ya get the gist.
6) Watch festive films. Cos duh. So far, I’ve ticked off The Grinch, The Holiday and Home Alone. As long as Love Actually has been watched before the big day, I’ll be happy.
7) Wrap your present all in one go with music blasting out, more than one colour of wrapping paper and plenty of ribbons. You’re basically a real life elf.
8) Burn Christmassy candles. By which I mean the Yankee Christmas Cookie candle because it smells like all the good things in life.
9) Go and see your local Christmas lights. And not just the official ones. Wander around in the dark and see the ones your neighbours have also put up. Ordinary streets will suddenly seem magical.
10) Get yourself to a Christmas market, preferably on a weekday or to a smaller one so you can wander around and drink it all in without wanting to murder the other eight million folk that have decided to show up. Listen to the carol singers and buy yourself some edible treats from one of the many stalls.
11) Be a cliché and try out the high street coffee shop festive menus as much as you want. Everyone is obsessed with the Starbucks red cups but Costa is my love. Their mint hot chocolate is so the one.
12) Play Christmas music. Try and remember if you know anything but the same nine songs you play every year. Give up and play those nine on repeat for days on end.
13) Go old school and buy a TV guide, like the Radio Times Christmas addition. Go through and circle all the gems that will be on TV this Xmas. DON’T FORGET SHERLOCK ON NEW YEARS DAY.
14) TREAT YO’SELF. Maybe don’t go too crazy but I’m all for slipping in a little treat for yourself whilst Christmas shopping. Summin’ small and cute to tease in the excitement of presents. You are never too young for this.
15) Get yourself in a glowing, cosy pub. Drink cocktails and more prosecco cos it’s Christmas god damn it.
Merry Christmas <3
The weekend that reminded me what's important
What’s up huns? I had my first ever filling this morning and I’m finally regaining feeling in my face (first ever experience with anaesthetic also). I’ve spent most of my morning not being able to concentrate cos I can’t feel my bottom lip or chin and why does my tongue feel four times as large?!
Not sure I’m really down with the numb face feeling.
Back to last week anyhoo. Which was not good. Nah uh. Hello, it was still November last week and I am not about that month (what’s the point of it exactly?).
Aside from my dislike of the non-month that is November, I also had some kind of existential crisis around my – I was gonna say ‘career’ there but lol, who do I think I am – working life.
You know the type. Where you confused and lost and why am I not a sassy business woman who got her shit together?
An Icelandic Road Trip | The South Coast
You've opened your advent calendar right? RIGHT?! It's a bloody good job Christmas is around the corner cos I am grumpy af atm. Someone just come and take away all my responsibilities. Please and thank you. In the meantime, I'm gonna keep writing posts about Iceland cos it gives me an excuse to look at photos of waterfalls.
Right, so, second part of this road trip (Golden Circle section here), and we're now heading to the south coast.
Stop 5: Seljalandsfoss waterfall (the one you can walk behind)
Yep, you can walk behind a waterfall. Is that not incentive enough to go pay a visit to this babe? You don’t come out resembling a drowned rat but I would still recommend waterproof trousers if you have them (which I didn’t lolz). There’s a little café (I recommend the smoothies) here so you can enjoy a picnic (if you’re going during the summer that is) in front of the waterfall, which falls over a mini cliff face. And then you can edge your way under the cliff face and around the back of the water which roars in your ears and soaks your jeans. Utterly amazing.
Stop 6: Reynisfijara beach
Technically, stop seven is closer to stop five, but we drove on to Reynisfijara beach so we could break up some of the journey on the way back by stopping at Skogafoss and it worked for us.
If you were going to imagine an Icelandic beach, this would probably be it. Volcanic, black pebbles with a glacier (man I wanted to go on that glacier) looming in the background. Mind blowing.
This particular beach is also famous for its unique, naturally formed rock sculptures. Some are in the sea, some hang over the sea and there’s an amazing sculptured cliff face and cave actually on the beach for you to check out and use up your camera memory over.
Stop 7: Skogafoss waterfall (the one with the rainbows)
This is what you might call a classic waterfall, in that it’s a complete vertical drop. This creates a crazy amount of spray so that, when the sun comes out, you can see all these rainbows in the mist. It was absolutely stunning. It was amazing to get up close to the bottom of a sixty foot waterfall (again, the spray) and fascinating to feel the temperature drop the closer you got. In terms of picture-taking, this was probably my favourite waterfall and I could have sat and watched it all day.
Iceland, you babe. <3
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